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April 2005
 Documentary
filmmaker Lorraine Norrgard
has produced films about Native American subjects for two decades.
Her six-part series on the Ojibwe, Waasa Inaabidaa-We Look
In All Directions, produced for WDSE, the PBS affiliate in
Duluth, Minnesota, won the Best Documentary Award and Producer's
Award at the 2002 American Indian Film Festival, as well as five
regional Emmies. Norrgard lives in Cloquet, Minnesota, near the
Fond du Lac Ojibwe Indian Reservation, where she teaches communications
at the tribal college. She serves on the board of the Independent
Feature Project-North. Norrgard grew up in the Chicago area and
received her MA in educational communications from the University
of Hawaii. She has worked abroad as a United Nations communications
officer developing educational media in Bangkok, Thailand, and
in European media distribution.
"I think it's very important that I live there. It's not
like I'm coming in and going away. And it's very important in
a community, when you're doing something like this, that people
feel that you are responsible for what you're doing, that they
can find you if they need you—you're not going to run in
and run out, and just take something. It's like a gift to the
community."
"My responsibility is to stay in the background as much
as possible so people feel as much ownership as possible. I believe
in consensus in all aspects of editing. Whoever it is that is
being filmed or participating has to be involved in every stage
of the editing process, so that they choose it, decide it, and
see it from beginning to end."
Screened by NMAI
Image credits: Lorraine
Norrgard - courtesy of the
filmmaker
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